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Oaenshee-drow
Oaenshee-drow are a subrace of Dark Elves. Physical Description *'Average height:' 170-190 cm for both males and females. *'Average weight:' 63-81 kg for males, 60-77 for females. *'Hair colour:' White or black. *'Eye colour:' Gray, blue or black. *'Skin colour:' Pale to the point of being grayish. *'Average lifespan:' Up to 300 years, reach physical maturity at 20-30 years. Facial features are smoother than humans', but tougher than other elves, sometimes even sharp. They have prominent cheekbones, often aquiline nose, thin lips, faint brow ridges and so on. Oanshee-drow have bigger, stronger hands than other dark elves, rather broad shoulders, wiry and muscular body and eyes with rudimentary epicanthus, which makes them a little narrower and more almond-shaped. Like other elves, the can not grow facial hair. Oaenshee-drow are the most resistant to magic. The mechanism of this phenomenon is still not well understood, but it is known that it is different from similar abilities orcs possess since it is manifested in any conditions. Their ability to cast is not affected. Distribution Evenly distributed among the Empire of Eberia, rarely found in other territories. Culture Settlements Tend to settle near seas and oceans in small, ramshackle fishing or pirate villages, but more commonly live in small communities or solitarily in other cities, commonly in human ones. Languages Simplan, Elven. Diet Traditionally, Oanshee-drow have quisine highly reflective of their seafaring lifestyle. Most of the food comes from the sea, which means the dishes consist of fish, crustaceans, seaweed, molluscs, etc. The preparations are usually simple enough and the dishes themselves aren't very complex, although the ones prepared for those of higher status usually have more spices. Sailors among the people, as is expected, often rely on rations. Among the most precious foods are some of the molluscs, which the elves either dive for themselves or buy from water-dwelling races if they happen to have a settlement nearby. Often this is how a place for an Oaenshee-drow village is picked. Another rare quisine is caviar, which is a sign of utmost respect when offered to someone. Other than that, it's only eaten at big days and only by those who can afford it. Industry, art and clothing At this point, Oanshee-drow are so dispersed across the world that they have little to no culture of their own. Like most other races in this situation, they mostly buy what they need (or, worse, steal). However, they do produce some things still. While they do not construct large ships, they do build small fishing boats, credited with being light and fast, but not very durable. They also make some jewelry and other art and decorative objects using pearls and precious metals, if they have any. But, of course, most commonly people trade with them for the goods they get from fishing. This is how most of the settlements (that are not pirate keeps) survive. Those living in the cities usually do whatever other citizens do, having little to no preferences of their own. The clothing Oaenshee-drow wear is a bit different from other dark elves. Leather is hard to get without hunting and it is less useful out in the seas. So, the basic clothing is usually somewhat loose and light, made out of whatever material was available. The ones living on land don't have this issue and stick to the more traditional dark leather commonly worn by other dark elves. Gender roles, marriage, birth, death and community Like most other elves, Oaenshee-drow are very neutral on the gender roles. Males and females have very little difference in their physical abilities and while females are a bit less muscular, this difference is less pronounced than in humans. In the settlements, females do tend to stay on the land more, but that usually boils down to the need of taking care of the children. If the child is old enough to not require specifically his or her mother's attention, she can go out to the sea instead of her husband. Speaking of marriage, this concept is rather interesting among Oaenshee-drow. Loosely described, it's not about just a couple. Usually, three people are bound by this tradition: husband, wife and someone else, typically a brother or a sister of one of them, however, anyone else can do, be it a relative or just a friend. The third person is the "caretaker", not involved in the romance but helping with the problems. It is a rather bad position, as you can imagine, but caretakers are free to enter another marriage as a husnband or a wife, so they can get a caretaker of their own for their own mundane life. Usually, the agreement to become a caretaker is either reached because of deep emotional connection to the husband or the wife, or out of promise of some sort of a reward, commonly a promise to set things up for the marriage of the caretaker and a friend or a relative of the husband or the wife. This other caretaker can be part of the first marriage orsomeone else entirely. This somewhat complicates trying to understand the relationships between the Oaenshee-drow, but since marriage is typically performed between people living in the same settlement, it supposedly brings everyone in it closer together. Those living in the cities, unsurprisingly, mostly abandoned this interesting tradition. Childbirth is usually not widely-celebrated: only close relatives are invited to a feast. A child should be bathed in seawater (usually it's brought specifically far away from the shore) and then is left to dry. If the child visibly has salt on his or her skin after that, it is considered a good sign. The child is named only after a month from birth. If he or she passes away during this period, there supposed to be no mourning, as the idea is that "it wasn't alive yet". In general, death is regarded with much lower "respect" than is common to other elves. The nature of sea-travel is such that it's hard to say when someone not returning home is truly dead or not, so that might have been the reason, or maybe it was due to the pirates being a sizable part of the subrace. This doesn't mean, however, that killers would be free to do their dirty deeds: as other dark elves, Oaenshee-drow highly value their closest relatives and will do anything to protect, or, if push comes to shove, avenge them. Oaenshee-drow are probably the strictest ones about it, and they often consider their entire crew or even their entire settlement as family and will stop at nothing to defend it. Traditional laws As other dark elves, Oaenshee-drow are somewhat disrespectful of most laws, but they do hold some in more regard than others. Most of them are related to protecting "their own" and taboo theft from and murder of anyone from this loosely defined category. Ruthless as they are, Oaenshee-drow are also very careful about harming young, even young animals. This applies even to creatures other consider horrible monstrosities. Interestingly enough, because of this position, one can sometimes find very strange and uncommon pets that were saved from death at young age and were somewhat domesticated or at least learnt to not attack the ones who saved them. Other than that, Oaenshee-drow don't really have a set of written laws, like humans do. They believe that what has to be done or what shouldn't be done is obvious enough and if someone doesn't understand the difference, others will stop him or her. Traditional beliefs To be described later. Realtionships with other cultures As was mentioned before, Oaenshee-dorw have a long history of relationships with underwater races, such as Selkies, Merfolk and others. For information about large schools of fish, locations of molluscs (or ships to plunder), pearls and sunken treasure, they give things from the surface, most notably food and especially drinks, including something as simple as fresh water. Common names To be described later. Reasons for adventuring Oanshee-drow are very adventurous culture, hence their preference to a rather dangerous lifestyle. Many become pirates or just sailors. However, there are reasons for them to travel on land too. Sometimes it involves finding someone who has to get the retribution coming for him or her for something that he or she has done to the "closest ones". Sometimes, this dark elf was barred from seas for one reason or another, and yet some just don't like the ships and the water all that much to begin with. Stereotypical traits Like other drow, Oaenshee-drow are often feared and misunderstood, even by other elves, and this reputation is not entirely unfounded. However, as is usually the case with stereotypes, they are not entirely and universally correct either. The amount of truly dangerous individuals amongst them is more than likely not different from any other race, but their general outlook on life stemming from their culture makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and it is not helped by their common demeanor. Despite the intimidating appearance and the name "dark" elves, there are those who follow the path of Light. Culture of the dark elves is based on the idea of complete moral and physical freedom, which sometimes leads to conflicts with other civilizations. Furthermore, they obviously do not like to comply with the laws and rules of others. Like other elves, dark elves prefer to grow long hair, although Oaenshee-drow often style it in various strange ways and are more comfortable with the idea of cutting it short if necessary, especially if they spend a lot of time at sea. Because of life in quite difficult conditions they usually look tatty: weathered skin, matted due to salty sea water hair, calloused hands, staggering gait, and numerous scars are normal appearance for these sea-farers by nature. Very rarely do oaenshee-drow reach any significant influence or status in an honest way, but those that follow in the footsteps of piracy often gaining a kind of "respect" and decent wealth. Drow are supposedly excellent fighters, even if they do not have the power of orcs or agility of halflings: their fast movements look as if blurred, and their extremely accurate strikes are deadly.